business– tag –

【Debate and volunteering shaped by Japanese culture】 Do you have a debate class as part of school subjects? In Japan, no, never, at least when I was a student, though it’s about 30 years ago. To top it all off, even after entering the ...

What would you do if you won the lottery of 10 million dollars? Quit a job, charter a plane, and go for luxury travel abroad? I believe everyone has such an experience to talk about something silly like this, but seriously think about it for a moment. Are you sure you can keep on doing only what you want to do even if you're alone?

Gacha, Japanese capsule toy vending machines come back in style! The biggest Japanese advertising agency brought about a revolution in the Gacha industry. They've started to install Gacha in some international airports in Japan. Their target customers are foreign tourists who have too much time and too many Japanese coins on their hands.

Tokyo Haneda airport has won No.1 since 2016 for the World's Cleanest Airports by Skytrax. Haruko Niitsu, she is a legendary cleaner in the airport who is said to play a key role to achieve the great feat.

This theme would be a critical issue especially for the business suit industry. In Japan, the industry is in danger of extinction. As time passed, office clothing became more and more casual, and less and less people wore a business suit. I think the fundamental reason for the decline would be the fact that business suits are uncomfortable.

I know we have received a lot of benefit from innovation mostly made by courageous or reckless decision-makers, but sometimes I can't help feeling that the value of being the first penguin is overestimated because of its high-risk nature. Think about it for a second: Nobody knows if such innovations can make the world richer. I think it may be better to leave it to some weirdos like Elon Musk.

Academically, the value of things is composed of three factors: rarity, utility, and timeliness. Let's put aside timeliness here because things get too complex. First of all, diamonds are no longer so useful at least in industrial activities because we can artificially make them. Let's rule out utility. Next, what about rarity? Do you still believe diamonds are rare?

Do you like video games? Me? I have no interest at all. When I was a kid, almost all the classmates had Nintendo Entertainment System, but I didn't. No matter how hard I wished for it, my parents didn't give the nod. Alternatively, I sometimes went to my friends' houses to play video games, but it was not so fun because the friends were much better. When I was a college student, Biohazard was released. I bought PlayStation myself to play it. The time came when my dream came true, but probably it was too late. I didn't get into it.

Japan has more than 6000 high schools, about 4000 of which have a baseball team. Every summer, there's a championship to decide the best team in Japan. Many people get excited, and fortunes are moved. On the other hand, people called a man with good sense raise voices against the trend, like "Don't prey on the innocent effort of high school kids." To be honest, I doubt if high school kids are such innocent, though.

As this may sound strange to people outside Japan, all the high school and university graduates join companies and start working in April, all at once. For one year before graduation, many companies throw recruiting sessions, and final-year university students spend most of their time in those sessions, instead of attending classes.